1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to e-commerce shopping via a monitoring terminal of a video interphone system provided for communication between building entrances and individual apartments and to television receivers connected via cable TV and to appliances connected via a network or the internet to an e-service call station and/or e-shopping site.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A television interphone monitor used for entrance-monitoring and communication is usually mounted on a wall inside the apartment, and connected via a matrix selector to a single entry or to a complex multi-entrance system and via an interface unit to an e-concierge station over a network. Such television interphone monitoring system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,603,842 B2.
However, such system with multi-entrances along with on-site concierge station or stations and with an interface or a PC for connecting the video interphone system to an e-commerce call center or to an online e-commerce shopping site may have limited capacity and become overloaded, particularly at busy hours, when many visitors to the building address the system and many tenants try to call simultaneously the e-commerce call center or the e-commerce shopping site. Such simultaneous calling may cause caller's queuing and communication processing delays within the building itself or from the building to the network via the system interface.
Some interactive television apparatuses that communicate with television broadcasters and television program providers via cable TV or via their antenna system and/or through the Internet are known as having communication and compatibility problems. Incompatibility and communication problems coupled with the non existing e-commerce standards, overloading of servers and/or the network, the waiting time to access the e-commerce sites and the complex search while trying to shop via the network cause confusion and frustration and this is the main reason for holding back the e-commerce growth.